Thursday, March 24, 2005

Thank ME? No, thank YOU

I just got the greatest email.

I've been having a rough couple of weeks (read the post immediately below for why) ... actually a rough year really, and I've notbeen in the best of moods today especially (my battery died, then after I recharged it, I spent 9 hours at my mothers re-fixing the computer I just spent three days fixing as of monday)....

Anyway, as I was saying, I just got an email that made my night.... errr morning (it's 0537, i've been up since 0900 yesterday, what exactly would you call that). A reader thanked me for writing this blog, and for the stuff I write over at the Nation of Rifleman forums (where I'm the moderator as well). She thanked me because I make her think about things a bit differently, and I make her laugh.

Folks I can't tell you how great that makes me feel, because that is exactly what I want out of life... or at least out of my writing.

I've been writing professionally since I was a teenager. I had a few magazine articles published, a couple of poems, and some supplementary materials for role playing games. Unfortunately I stopped writing a few years ago because of work, and family, and life in general.

Let me tell you, things build up inside for a guy like me, and I have to let them out. I'm a pretty intense guy in some ways, and a pretty laid back on in others. I'm easy going, I don't get angry or mad like other people do, I'm not a yeller, but I get very... forecefull when Im passionate, or I get VERY sarcastic or jsut humorous, but it has to come out somehow.

A lot of things in this world strike me as absurd, or funny, or sad, or appalling... hell, a lot of things just strike me. I look around, I notice things... mostly I notice other people NOT notcing things, and that bugs me.

I love the free and open exchange of ideas. I love debate. I love argument. I hate PC bullshit that stifles these things. I hate when people look at conversation as a competition that has to be won. I hate that people take disagreement personally.

I want to talk about things. I want people to think about things in new and different way. I want to be contentious, and to stir people up, because then, you're actually think about things, rather than jsut going though the motions.

If I can do that, then maybe those things can change, or get better, or the good things stronger, and maybe people will give a damn a bit more. Yeah, it's corny, but if each of us, one at a time, starts changing peoples minds about things, then eventually the good guys CAN win.

If I can do that, than anything else I do wont matter, and I'll be damned happy, and consider myself damned lucky (emphasis on the damned part I think).

I feel profoundly grateful that I am able to express myself in this way; that I have both the capability, and the forum; and that I have people who want to read what I write.